This policy sets out expectations based on requirements set out in the 2025 Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). This document also complies with our funding agreement and articles of association.

We aim to:

Provide a happy, safe, stimulating and challenging programme of learning and development for our children as they begin their journey at Co-op Academy Brierley.
Prioritise the development of communication and language in early years as this is fundamental to enabling children to access the rest of the curriculum.
Support children to become confident communicators who express their needs, their thoughts and experiences.
Support the development of early reading skills by providing a reading curriculum that aims for ‘every child to be a reader’ by the end of EYFS. This is prioritised by teachers and leaders across Co-op Academy Brierley who ensure consistent, rigorous delivery and fidelity to the use of an adapted RWI programme.
Construct a curriculum that is ambitious and designed to give children, particularly the most disadvantaged, the knowledge, self-belief and cultural capital they need to succeed in life, ensuring a high quality experience for all children.
Provide an inclusive learning environment that is sensitive to individual requirements of children and supports children with additional needs.
Build strong parent partnerships by developing excellent relationships with parents and carers and helping them to support their children at home.

2. Roles and Responsibilities

The SLT has overall responsibility for the implementation of the Early Years Policy at Co-op Academy Brierley. The SLT has overall responsibility for ensuring that the Early Years Policy, as written, does not discriminate on any grounds, including but not limited to: ethnicity/national origin, culture, religion, gender, disability or sexual orientation. The SLT has responsibility for handling complaints regarding this policy as outlined in the Academy’s complaints policy.

The EYFS Lead will be responsible for the day-to-day implementation and management of the Early Years Policy at Co-op Academy Brierley. Staff, including teachers, support staff and volunteers, will be responsible for following the Early Years Policy.

3.1 Welfare

“Children learn best when they are healthy, safe, secure, when their individual needs are met, and when they have positive relationships with the people caring for them.” Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage, 2025

Safety and security is of the highest priority at Co-op Academy Brierley and it is important that all children in our care are safe at all times. We follow the safeguarding and welfare requirements set out in the 2025 Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). The Early Years Leader completes frequent welfare checks. This is checked annually by the trust Director of Early Years.

We understand that we are legally required to comply with the welfare requirements, as stated in the reformed Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework (2025), and are required to:

Safeguard children
Ensure the adults who have contact with children are suitable
Promote good health
Support and understand behaviour
Maintain records, policies and procedures

3.2 Safeguarding

Safety is paramount at Co-op Academy Brierley and there is a robust and effective Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy to ensure the children in our care are protected. Rigorous procedures are used to identify anyone at risk or harm of radicalisation and set out clear procedures for reporting concerns. The trust Intimate Care Policy (template) sets out the expectations for how children who need this level of care are supported.

3.3 Health and Safety

The following general Health and Safety safeguards are in place:

• A supply of fresh drinking water is available on the premises at all times.

• Children’s dietary needs are acted upon.

• Snack is provided by school taking into account allergies/medical dietary requirements.

• A paediatric first aid trained member of staff is in the EYFS setting at all times.

• Accidents are reported following the school procedures

• A fire and emergency evacuation procedure and policy are in place.

4. Structure of EYFS

At Co-op Academy Brierley we offer early years provision for the following age groups.

Reception: For children aged 4 to 5 years.
Where appropriate, all learners up to the age of 7 years have access to our Foundation Pathway. The majority of learners in Year 3 will be streamlined into one of the following pathways; Informal, Semi-Formal, Formal.

5. Values and Four Ways of Being

We are proud to be a part of Co-op Academies Trust. The Co-op was founded on a set of values that we embrace. These are Equality, Equity, Solidarity, Honesty, Openness, Caring for others, Self-help, Self-responsibility, Social responsibility and Democracy. We also teach the children about the Four Ways of Being, referring to them whenever possible, to ensure that children develop a good understanding of the meaning and implications of each one. These are:

Be yourself, always
Do what matters most
Show you care
Succeed together

6. Principles of the EYFS

Our Foundation Stage provision reflects the four main principles of the EYFS:

A unique child – developing resilient, capable, confident and self-assured individuals
Positive relationships – supporting children in becoming strong and independent
Enabling environments – where opportunities and experiences respond to the individual needs of the child by developing a strong partnership between practitioners, parents / carers and the child
Learning and development – an acknowledgement that children learn in different ways and at different rates

7. Intent

“All children deserve the care and support they need to have the best start in life. Children learn and develop at a faster rate from birth to five years old than at any other time in their lives, so their experiences in early years have a major impact on their future life chances. A secure, safe, and happy childhood is important in its own right. Good parenting and high-quality early learning provide the foundation children need to fulfil their potential.

The EYFS sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to ensure children’s ‘school readiness’ and gives children the right foundation for good future progress through school and life.

The EYFS seeks to provide:

Quality and consistency in all early years settings, so that every child makes good progress, and no child gets left behind.
A secure foundation through planning for the learning and development of each individual child and assessing and reviewing what they have learned regularly.
Partnership working between practitioners and with parents and/or carers.
Equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice, ensuring that every child is included and supported.

(Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage, DfE, 2025)

8.1 Implementation

Co-op Academy Brierley recognises that every child is unique, and that each child develops at their own pace, in different ways. We support every child in being the best version of themselves, growing in confidence and being proud of who they are. Children’s learning behaviours and dispositions to learning are influenced by feedback and the environment around them. Encouragement, praise, rewards and celebrations are well embedded within our curriculum, to provide children with a sense of belonging, and self-achievement.

8.2 Curriculum

The Statutory Framework of the Early Years Foundation Stage (2025) outlines the Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning (CoETL) and the 7 areas of learning and development. The CoETL are organised into three primary strands and are essential components towards children becoming self-regulated learners. These are:

Playing and exploring - children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’
Active learning - children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements
Creating and thinking critically - children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.

There are 17 aspect areas (early learning goals) within 7 curriculum areas of development. These are divided into Prime and Specific areas of learning as follows:

The “prime” areas of learning and development are:

Communication and language
Physical development
Personal, social and emotional development

Communication and language underpins all areas of learning within our early years curriculum and continues to be developed within our provision, teaching, learning and planning methods. The prime areas are seen as particularly important for igniting curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, and for building children’s capacity to learn, form relationships and thrive. Planned learning supports the progress and development of listening and speaking, enabling children to process information into thinking and understanding. Children practise their physical skills alongside developing social skills, which supports greater independence and higher levels of confidence.

The “specific” areas of learning and development are:

Literacy
Mathematics
Understanding of the world
Expressive arts and design

The 4 specific areas of learning provide a context for development and reflect cultural knowledge and accumulated understanding. They are dependent on learning in the Prime areas. Our continuous provision demonstrates a strong emphasis upon supporting children’s understanding of the world along with enabling them to express themselves imaginatively and creatively, using art and design. New learning and topics are adapted to reflect the needs of the children and their interests.

Planning is informed by the latest, most accurate and up to date assessments of the children and is linked to children’s interests to achieve high engagement whilst still covering the breadth of the foundation curriculum.

8.3 Teaching and Learning in EYFS

Our Foundation Pathway intent is as follows:

Show you care

At Co-op Academy Brierley we want to form positive and trusting relationships with our families and we know that starting a new school brings lots of new challenges and worries. Along with your child’s class teacher, we have a team of staff to support you as a family and we are available via the Class Dojo app, by phone or email, to ensure we do our Brierley Best for you.

This starts through a home visit for all new children starting in Reception along with a personalised induction plan, including stay and play sessions in the term prior to starting school. Once children start school, we work collaboratively with families through daily communication by phone or Class Dojo, to ensure that individual needs of the children are met and pupil’s progress and ‘wow’ moments are shared. Stay and Play sessions are also held in Foundation Pathway to involve families in their child’s learning experiences, along with celebrations at the end of each term for our ‘Fabulous Finishes’.

Be yourself always

The Foundation Pathway is the beginning of our pupil’s inspiring journeys at Co-op Academy Brierley with all children in Reception to Year 2 starting in this Pathway. Pupils with a wide range of needs access the Foundation Pathway and follow the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum. The curriculum is designed to settle pupils into school life whilst accessing meaningful and challenging learning experiences. In our Foundation pathway, the focus is to establish the communication strategies and learning styles which best suit the individual pupils, this supports the decisions about the most appropriate pathway for the children in their next steps.

In Foundation Pathway we want our learners to:

Be confident around new people
Be supported to access different learning environments
Finding ways to express wants and needs through the most appropriate communication strategies
Develop play sequences and curiosity by exploring the world around them
Develop movement and Personal, Social, Emotional Development through interactions with adults and peers in continuous provision
Identification of most suitable post-EYFS pathway
Build relationships with families

Do what Matters Most-

Our Ambitious Curriculum: Our Foundation Pathway leader has developed a three year curriculum, covering all areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and giving lots of opportunities to embed new skills and make connections in knowledge through structured, adult led sessions. These sessions are very short and adults will support learners in small groups or individually to match their stage of development.

Communication and language development (Prime area)
Personal social emotional development (Prime area)
Physical development (Prime area)
Literacy; including Sound Time/ Read Write Inc phonics and TalkforWriting (Specific area)
Mathematics (Specific area)
Understanding of the world (Specific area)
Expressive arts and design (Specific area)

Learners are also supported to build ‘Characteristics of effective learning’ through continuous provision both indoors and out, where our skilled staff support their play sequences and developing communication towards personal learning goals. The Characteristics of Effective Learning outlined in the EYFS are:

playing and exploring - where children investigate and experience new things.
active learning - where children concentrate and keep on trying when they encounter difficulties.
creating and thinking critically - where children develop their own ideas, make links between them and develop strategies.

Communication: Building communication skills is integral to learning within our pathway. All pupils are treated as intentional communicators and we follow an ‘assumed competency’ meaning that we believe everyone has something to say and everyone can learn.

The communication needs of each pupil in our pathway are observed and baselined within their first few weeks at Brierley, using SCERTs assessment framework and by our SALT team. As a result they are supported with the most appropriate communication system/s for them to use both at home and school. For some learners this may begin with OoR (Objects of Reference) where words are represented by real life objects. Learners may progress to visual symbols through communication boards to encourage functional communication, independence and speech. Gesture, vocalisations, body and eye movements are additionally encouraged to express their wants and needs. Each class team uses basic Makaton sign to support the children’s existing communication skills and Intensive Interaction is integral to supporting learners for 1:1 sessions and in spontaneous play. Daily Attention Autism, Sound Time and sensory story are planned through a total communication approach.

Independence- We provide our students with a safe and nurturing learning environment where forming positive relationships and building trust with new people supports learners mutual regulation. The pathway uses an early years child-led approach offering pupils opportunities to make choices and develop independence skills. We pride ourselves in making the pupil’s first experience of school exciting and special for them and their families. In Foundation pathway, predictable structured routines scaffold every learning experience and support pupils self-regulation. Every learner uses either objects of reference, an individual timetable and/ or travel boards to support them in accessing new learning experiences and the different learning environments around school. Our daily timetable gives opportunities to explore our Life skills kitchen, farm and forest school, sensory rooms, immersive suite and playgrounds.

Personalisation- Every learner has a Pupil Passport which is reviewed termly, new targets set with parents and progress tracked using ‘Evidence for Learning.’ All families have access to Class Dojo where teachers communicate daily with parents to share photos and messages about their childs’ day in school. In Foundation Pathway we want to build our learners communication and independence by following their interests and fascinations. Therefore provision is planned using the topic theme AND by observing learners interests and setting up learning experiences that are meaningful to them.

Well being- Personal social and emotional development is integral to every session, with high adult to child ratios supporting staff to build trusting relationships and support mutual regulation. Staff support their personal learning journey through high quality interaction within areas of provision, identifying learners interests and working towards their Personal Learning Goals. Physical development is integral to the timetable with movement sessions; indoors, outdoors and using sensory integration provision. Every class is equipped with movement areas and children access our forest school, farm, rebound and sensory rooms for targeted sessions. All learners access daily Sensory circuits sessions.

Succeed together

We use ‘Evidence for Learning’ to track pupil progress for all learners against each area of development in the EYFS at the end of each term. This attainment data is used to update individual Pupil Passports and ensure targets are appropriate and achievable. To ensure we identifying our learners successes, we have create robust progression step documents for each area of learning and teachers use these to identify next steps and plan for progression.

Our pathway lays the foundations of ‘what matters most’ for each individual child to create the most fitting learning path for them on their learning journey. This is done through observing the child’s ‘communication’, ‘cognition and learning’, ‘personal social and emotional’ and ‘physical and sensory’ needs during their time in Foundation Pathway. On-going discussions with families and professionals additionally support these decisions to ensure they are right for each child.

8.4 Positive Relationships

At Co-op Academy Brierley, we recognise that in order for children to flourish in all aspects of the curriculum, they need a strong foundation in the three prime areas: Communication and Language, Personal, Social and Emotional and Physical Development. These prime areas unlock access to the wider curriculum, and allow growth within the specific areas: Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design.

Within our Early Years Foundation Stage, we teach and support the development of metacognition, resilience and self motivation, based around the Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning. These encourage pupils to develop caring, respectful, supportive and kind relationships with others. Adults promote positive relationships at all times and sensitively interact with children to enable them to develop successful relationships with peers and staff.

8.5 Parent and Carer Partnerships

The Early Years Foundation Setting cannot function without the enduring support of parents and carers. We recognise that as parents, you are the child’s primary educator and we recognise this important role through regular engagement including:

Home visits for all children new to setting
Staggered starts
Dojo platform communications
EHCP Annual Review with class teacher and relevant professionals.
Access to regular coffee mornings with a variety of foci
A robust and detailed transition process which values the information received from parents/carers to support children settling into school.
Asking parents to sign permission slips for visits out of school, use of photographs of their child for display/assessment purposes and using the internet at school.
Having an open door policy to enable parents to come and speak with teachers, should they have any concerns.
Events and activities throughout the year which bring together children, parents and the school.
Parental access to e.g. Class Dojo
Annual written report to parents in the summer term.

8.6 Enabling Environments

The classroom is organised in such a way that children can explore and learn in a safe, secure and stimulating environment. Equipment and resources are labelled and easily accessible and can be located and used independently by children. The enclosed outdoor area is valued equally to the indoor learning environment and provides opportunities for children to learn in a different way in a safe and secure space. Activities are planned throughout both learning environments to help the children develop in all areas of learning.

9.1 Impact

Regular and ongoing assessment and professional dialogue between staff enables children to meet high expectations and show consistent high rates of accelerated progress from their starting points. Children develop at their own pace and impact is evident across all areas of learning. There are robust assessment procedures outlined below to measure impact.

9.2 Assessment

Ongoing assessment is an integral part of the learning and development processes within the early years. Staff observe pupils to identify their level of achievement, interests and learning styles. These observations are used to shape future planning. Assessments do not entail prolonged breaks from interaction with children. When assessing an individual child’s level of development, practitioners draw on their knowledge of the child and their own expert professional judgement. Practitioners also take into account observations shared by parents and/or carers.

The Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA), became statutory in schools in September 2021. It is a short, task-based assessment of pupils’ starting points in Language, Communication and Literacy and Mathematics. It is not used to label or track individual pupils. Schools are required to carry out the assessment within the first six weeks of pupils starting Reception. Data will only be used at the end of Year 6, to form the school-level progress measure, however teachers will receive a series of short, narrative statements that tell them how their pupils performed in the assessment. These can be used to inform teaching within the first term.

Assessment in EYFS takes the following forms;

Baseline assessment (RBA) in the first 4 weeks of the autumn term of Reception.
Speech and language screening will take place following a referral
Observations of children in continuous provision and records of adult-led
activities to form the child’s learning journey.
Summative judgements against progression documents via the Arbor assessment system.
End of year EYFS Profile judgements at the end of Reception, which summarise pupils’ progress against the Early Learning Goals.

9.3 Moderation

Moderation takes place throughout the year at academy, trust and local authority level to ensure accuracy and validity. We recognise the importance of moderation, ensuring that assessments and judgments are accurate and valid. To this end, we carry out the following:

Regular meetings to discuss observations and judgments
Attendance at whole school moderation meetings
Attendance at Trust moderation meetings
Complying with LA moderation visits
Shared observations within the pathway

9.4 Evidence Gathering

At Co-op Academy Brierley, we use Evidence for Learning to capture a child’s learning journey and to evidence and showcase work.

10. Transition

Leaders at Co-op Academy Brierley understand that transitions are landmark events for children that impact on their emotional and academic development. Transition can be an exciting time of change and new opportunity for children. However, we also recognise that they can be times of uncertainty where surroundings, expectations and procedures are different. Leaders place importance on getting transition right for every child and work hard to ensure this is a process that involves children, practitioners and parents together.

On entry to EYFS, our team works tirelessly to ensure that children are surrounded by a kind, caring and happy environment which helps them develop the skills needed for their journey through school. Using the Ways of Being and characteristics of effective learning, staff ensure school is a positive place where resilience, perseverance and successes are celebrated and every child feels valued and respected.

Towards the end of Reception, children are encouraged to become more independent in recording their work as appropriate to ensure they are well prepared for the move to Year 1. We also ensure that the pedagogy in Year 1 reflects the independent learning skills children have gained in EYFS working together as teams to develop expertise and confidence in all teaching staff.

Transition pathways - The following process is in place to ensure children’s successful transition to Reception:

Parents are invited to a parent information evening in Summer Term where they can meet the class teacher, see the classroom and hear about our curriculum and provision.
Reception staff conduct home visits to all children new to setting. A transition book is sent to them via email to prepare them for their transition day. Some learners may need more than one transition day.
In the admissions pack, parents are asked to complete an 'All About Me' information sheet prior to their child starting school in September.
A staggered start operates in the first week of the autumn term to allow the children to settle into their new class and feel secure in their key worker group prior to full time schooling from the second week.

11. Linked Policies

This policy should be read in conjunction with other school and trust policies, most notably:

Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy
Intimate Care Policy
Online Safety Policy
Behaviour Policy
Attendance Policy
Positive Handling Policy
Supporting Pupils with Medical Needs
SEND policy
Health & Safety Policy
First Aid Policy

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